The present invention relates to an unmanned and compact turret for a combat unit, in particular for a combat vehicle, said turret being fitted with automatic canon and comprising a turret housing which is intended to be mounted on an outside of the combat unit and can rotate about a substantially vertical axis, and in which turret housing there is a weapon holder for pivotably supporting a canon about a horizontal axis, which canon has a barrel projecting from the turret housing and a rear part with an associated loading mechanism situated inside the housing, at least one ammunition magazine being arranged in the turret for accommodating a projectile-supporting chain belt which can on the one hand fold between individual chains of the belt about an axis substantially parallel to the projectiles and on the other hand can curve in its own plane about an axis situated outside the belt and substantially at right angles to the plane of the belt.
In modern combat vehicles, there is an ever increasing requirement for small, compact and unmanned turrets equipped with automatic canon which can be remote-controlled from an operator position, for example in a crew module underneath in the vehicle. For this purpose, the turret must be able to accommodate the necessary electrical and mechanical guidance equipment for the automatic canon, optical instruments, such as IR cameras, lasers, CCD cameras, sensors, etc., and at least one ammunition magazine from which projectiles are to be fed via chain belts to a loading mechanism located in the rear part of the canon. An additional requirement is that external parts of the turret should be designed to give the lowest possible radar and IR signature. A factor which greatly influences the dimensioning of the turret is the position of the ammunition magazine or magazines and the arrangement of the conveyor for the ammunition belts running out from said magazine or magazines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,185 discloses an arrangement for feeding ammunition into an automatic weapon in a helicopter gun turret. The ammunition magazine is positioned a substantial distance behind the weapon, and the ammunition is fed in a wide and space-consuming loop around the weapon.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,138 discloses a manned turret with the ammunition magazines positioned far below the weapon, with a conveyor system which allows ammunition to be fed to an elevatable weapon. The conveyor loops (chain belts) of the feed system here require a relatively large space both vertically and horizontally, for which reason the turret, in addition to the area for the crew, is correspondingly larger and thus not optimally compact.
DE-C1-4 126 688 discloses a heavy combat vehicle with an unmanned turret fitted with canon, the ammunition being fed from a position in the vehicle body underneath.
Solution Provided by the Invention
It is therefore an object of the invention to propose a new and improved arrangement of ammunition magazines in turrets in order to achieve optimally small dimensions of same. For this purpose, the turret according to the invention specified in the introduction is characterized in that the magazine is arranged to the side of the rear part of the canon and has an outlet for the ammunition belt situated in such a way that the latter can be conveyed from a rear part of the magazine and guided forwards along an underside of the magazine and thereafter curved through about 90xc2x0 about an axis substantially at right angles to the plane of the belt for feeding the projectiles to the loading mechanism. Since the ammunition belt is normally stored in folded loops in a magazine casing to the side of the canon and the projectiles are directed substantially at right angles to their future position in the canon and with their points directed away from the latter, the width and length dimensions of the turret can be kept to a minimum. The belt can in this case be reeled off from above and led out via an outlet opening at the rear of the magazine and thereafter conveyed along the underside of the magazine, for which reason the structural height of the turret can also be kept relatively low. Before the projectiles are fed into the loading mechanism of the canon with their point directed forwards, the ammunition belt therefore has to be curved through about 90xc2x0 about an axis oriented substantially at right angles to the plane of the belt, which can be done with a radius of curvature of about 50 cm for an ammunition length of about 22 cm and caliber of 25 mm.
It is particularly expedient to arrange two ammunition magazines placed one on top of the other, these magazines being able to contain, in a known manner, different types of ammunition, for example armour-piercing projectiles or high-explosive shells. The outlets for the respective ammunition belts are in this case arranged on a rear wall of the magazines.
Further features of the turret according to the invention will be explained in detail below with reference to the attached drawings.